Recalibration: Why Dr. Oz is such a positive force for empowering health-conscious people

(NaturalNews) I have updated the story that originally appeared here with this account after having met Dr. Oz face to face and appeared on his show as a guest for a heavy metals research segment.

This experience drastically altered my opinion of Dr. Oz, and in my view he has become more and more of an "activist" in his own way, daring to delve into areas of investigation and controversy that his show probably wouldn't have approached in its first two seasons. What follows is my updated, firsthand view of Dr. Oz from April of 2014:

For starters, Dr. Oz's staff is absolutely remarkable. These are some of the hardest-working, most professional and well-informed people I've encountered in the world of media. They run the operation there like clockwork, filming an astonishing six segments in one day, complete with video animations, graphics, set artwork (such as product mock-ups) and studio prep. I've always considered myself to be one of the hardest-working people online today, but these team members at the Dr. Oz show set a whole new example of productivity and efficiency.

I fully realize many Natural News fans who aren't used to me gushing about a famous media personality are going to immediately think there's some funny business going on here. Perhaps I'm trying to cozy up to Dr. Oz, you might think. But I think you know me better than that. I'm a blatant truth-teller, and I don't hand out compliments easily. In fact, I'm known as being quite critical rather than easily impressed.

So let me get right to my observations of Dr. Oz himself. He's a brilliant person, flat out. And he's courteous, too. Being around him, I immediately got the sense that he's a person who genuinely cares about what he's doing, who he's empowering and how he's introducing important ideas of nutrition, wellness and self-care to his audience. In no way did he come across as a fake or an actor. He seems genuine through and through.

I've met and worked with a lot of people in media, and some of them truly are fake... but not Dr. Oz. He's the real deal, and from what I can see of how hard he works at delivering an informative (and sometimes entertaining) show, he deserves every bit of success he has achieved. As a specific example, he ran through the show notes on our segment with lightning speed then delivered the segment without missing a beat. He asks good questions, he engages you as a guest, and he allows you the space to express what you were invited there to share.

Expanding cultural boundaries on food, nutrition and medicine

As you probably know, Dr. Oz and I don't 100% agree on everything, but that doesn't count against someone who engages his audience and guests with authenticity and kindness. Dr. Oz is extremely thoughtful and he really does his homework. He expands the boundaries of cultural thinking on many issues, and he's helping shape the cultural landscape on food, nutrition, medicine and self-healing. Although he and I might disagree on the efficacy of seasonal flu shots, for example, my sense is that Dr. Oz would always be the kind of person who would listen to a reasonable argument, even if his own conclusions might differ in the end.

That's the kind of person I honor in this realm of holistic medicine, nutrition and self-healing. We don't all have to agree on precisely the same conclusions; but we must at least be able and willing to listen to each other's viewpoint. For example, if someone offered a suggestion to Dr. Oz to do something like, "Remove the toxic mercury from flu shots," I have no doubt he would be very open to such an idea, even if the vaccine industry wouldn't.

My own experience on the Dr. Oz show was extremely positive and welcoming, by the way. He and his crew did their due diligence on the story I brought to him, and they required lots of scientific documentation before they would even consider having me on. I respect that. It shows a level of professionalism and reasonable skepticism that I think is healthy and necessary in investigative reporting. If I ran the show, I would operate in precisely the same manner.

For these reasons (and others), I've become a fan of Dr. Oz and what he's accomplishing with his show. Consider how remarkable it is that today, in 2014, we have a national television doctor who broadcasts episodes entitled, Foods That Might Prevent Heart Disease Better Than Statins. This is exactly the kind of story you'd frequently read on Natural News, too, because it's based on the fundamental philosophy that we need to empower health-conscious consumers with genuine solutions based on principles of nutrition and self-care.

Both Dr. Oz and I wholeheartedly share in that philosophy. It's why I see Dr. Oz as a positive force for the health education of a global audience.

Rest assured that neither the drug companies nor the FDA will offer any such education. If not for popular TV personalities like Dr. Oz, who else could bring this kind of message to mainstream viewers?

About the author:Mike Adams (aka the "Health Ranger") is a best selling author (#1 best selling science book on Amazon.com) and a globally recognized scientific researcher in clean foods. He serves as the founding editor of NaturalNews.com and the lab science director of an internationally accredited (ISO 17025) analytical laboratory known as CWC Labs. There, he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for achieving extremely high accuracy in the analysis of toxic elements in unknown water samples using ICP-MS instrumentation. Adams is also highly proficient in running liquid chromatography, ion chromatography and mass spectrometry time-of-flight analytical instrumentation.

Adams is a person of color whose ancestors include Africans and Native American Indians. He's also of Native American heritage, which he credits as inspiring his "Health Ranger" passion for protecting life and nature against the destruction caused by chemicals, heavy metals and other forms of pollution.

Adams is the founder and publisher of the open source science journal Natural Science Journal, the author of numerous peer-reviewed science papers published by the journal, and the author of the world's first book that published ICP-MS heavy metals analysis results for foods, dietary supplements, pet food, spices and fast food. The book is entitled Food Forensics and is published by BenBella Books.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Through the non-profit CWC, Adams also launched Nutrition Rescue, a program that donates essential vitamins to people in need. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource featuring over 10 million scientific studies.

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